


headphones on, volume up

by chemicalroses



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angry Eren Yeager, Angst, Anxiety, Depressed Levi, Depression, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow-ish burn, Violence, ereri, jeanmarco, lots of fluff, not so drastic age difference, springles - Freeform, they're all in therapy together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-10
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-08 14:32:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4308810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chemicalroses/pseuds/chemicalroses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>.</p><p> “And why are you here today, Eren?”</p><p>“’Cause I busted my fist on some guy’s jaw,”</p><p>[In which Eren thought he'd hate group therapy, but was pleasantly surprised when he met Levi—another screw up—who made his life a little more bearable.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Yes! My first chapter SNK fic! I am so excited...

Eren hated everything. He hated his school, his friends, _Jean_ , and especially—no, more than _anything_ , at the moment—he hated primary colors. He did not realize this hatred until he was stuck in a room coated in them, literally; wall to wall and everything in between was red, yellow and blue.

He supposed after a few minutes that this anger was the reason why he was stuck in the ugly room in the first place. Of course, defending his natural response, he hadn’t expected group therapy to be _this_ bad.

“What’s your name, young man?” Erwin Smith, the counselor assigned to their group, clicked his pen against his ever-so-colorful clipboard as he addressed him.

“Eren,”

Annoyance flared in his chest as the other people in the room looked around and tried to find him. Luckily it was difficult for some to see, since he had dragged his plastic yellow chair to sit in the back left corner of the room.

 “And why are you here today, Eren?”

“’Cause I busted my fist on some guy’s jaw,”

A few people turned to look at Jean, who had a giant black and blue bruise under his ear and was sitting in the corner opposite Eren. They figured then, based on Jean’s similar story and the swollen black eye Eren had, that anger management was the reason why they were both thrown into group therapy.

“I see,” Erwin nodded, “Welcome to our group, Eren. Welcome _back_ , Jean.”

Both cripples rolled their eyes.

As the man continued with attendance and introductions, the more pissed off Eren became. Sure, he got to know a lot of reasons why the people in the room were there, and those were pretty interesting, but he was still on the verge of falling asleep. Or ripping down all of the disgusting blue wallpaper.

And so the dullness continued, until a boy with jet black hair sauntered through the doors, twenty minutes late. He had an iced green tea from Starbucks in one hand and a thick silver chain in the other, and didn’t even bother acknowledging Erwin as he grabbed a chair and sat down.

“Levi,” Erwin sighed, “Late again, I see?”

Eren snickered slightly as _Levi_ , or so he was addressed, took a long sip of his drink instead of answering.

“Something I said was funny, Jaeger?”

“Nope,” The boy was quick to answer; the cheeky grin was still plastered on his face, “please, continue,”

He saw Levi crack an amused smile.

The rest of the session (and the next three sessions after) went by surprisingly fast, probably because Eren spent the time staring at him. Levi was rather short (made up for it in muscle), and had a killer scowl on his face. His eyes, which intrigued Eren, were acceptable to stare at because they were more a _greyish_ blue, not the same shade as the one coating the walls.

 _This guy_ , Eren thought during his fourth session, _might be worth my time_.

“Hey Erwin,” Levi interrupted the blonds lecture about self-something-or-other by raising his empty Starbucks cup, “Do you think I could go get a refill? You want anything?”

Erwin fumed as Eren bit back another wave of laughter.

_Oh yeah. Definitely worth my time._


	2. Chapter One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi wants pancakes, so he and Eren go to breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting this extremely early since it's already written... I plan on updating this story very often. Hopefully the more chapters there are, the more I'll adapt into a routine when it comes to posting.

“You know, staring is rude,”

Eren blinked. It was nerve-racking to say the least, to wake up from a daydream and have Levi Ackerman talking to him. Or, rather, scolding him. The older boy was fiddling with his silver chain and standing in front of the other, who still sat in his yellow chair.

“Sorry,” Eren’s voice was rough, due to not talking for the entire meeting (he didn’t normally chip in, and when he did, it turned into a screaming match with either Jean or Erwin or whoever challenged him first), “I was just spacing out,”

Levi didn’t buy it, and honestly Eren couldn’t either; not when his voice was trembling so much. Even if he was “just spacing out”, he had probably been staring at Levi. He always stared at Levi.

“If you’re pissed at me just say so, you don’t have to glare at me when I’m not looking,” Levi shrugged, “Or when I _am_ ,”

“Who said I was pissed at you?” Eren defended himself, as he was suddenly offended for no good reason.

“You certainly _sound_ pissed,”

“Well you sound _judgy_ ,”

Levi grinned and took another swig of his tea, which somehow made Eren even more annoyed.

“You don’t have come late to every meeting,” He argued, “You act like a prick,”

“And you don’t?” Levi took another, more obvious gulp and then tossed the empty cup in the garbage. “Come on, let’s go get breakfast,”

Eren cut himself off, which was probably a good thing, since his next claim wasn’t very thought out. Instead of saying anything, he settled for simply looking confused. That took little to no effort.

“Huh?”

“I said, let’s go get breakfast,” Levi said, “It’s nearly seven and I’m hungry. So are you. I could hear your stomach through the entire meeting.”

As if on cue, Eren’s stomach gave a loud rumble—which he desperately tried to cover up with a fake cough—and Levi smirked. He slid the silver chain he had been holding into his back pocket and whipped out a very organized ring of keys in its place. Holding on to one of them, (the one meant to unlock his car, or so Eren assumed) he shook the rest of the keys and motioned to the exit.

“Seriously, come on,”

And so Eren went.

.

The diner they ended up in, a cute place named Colossal’s Waffles, served amazing hot chocolate. That was the first genuine opinion Eren had made since Levi talked him into going. The ride over had been nothing but awkward, since Eren was still rather upset and even more confused, while Levi looked totally relaxed.

“It’s seven at _night_ , you know,” Eren had reminded him.

“Yes, it is,”

“So why are we getting _breakfast_? Why are you taking _me_ to get breakfast? You don’t even know me.”

Levi turned to face him as he drove, completely serious.

“First of all, breakfast is _good,_ and I want pancakes,” He said, “Second of all, I don’t see the harm in bringing someone along. It’s not like you’re going to kill me or anything.”

“Who said _I’d_ kill anyone?”

Levi’s lips twitched into an amused grin.

“Unlike you, I can control myself around people.”

And that was that for conversation. Until they sat down in the diner and the hot chocolate arrived.

“It’s good, right?” Levi said, observing the look on Eren’s face after taking a sip.

“Oh my god,”

“I know. I _know_.”

Eren frantically began chugging the scalding hot liquid as fast as he could without burning his tongue off.

“It tastes like… Like… Like _really_ _good_ hot chocolate!” Eren gasped in between gulps, and Levi laughed as he watched. He was suddenly glad he’d invited the energetic youth.

“Slow down, you’ll get a headache,” He warned. Eren reluctantly placed the drink on the table, but kept a hand on it at all times so it wouldn’t spill.

“Who makes the hot chocolate and can I please hug them?” He asked with a straight face. Levi cocked an eyebrow.

“So angry boy is capable of hugging?”

To his own surprise, Eren grinned instead of fighting back.

“Very funny,”

“Sorry,” Levi waved off his attempt at humor, “If you’re looking for someone to give credit to, it’d probably be Bertholdt over there.”

Eren followed Levi’s gaze to a very tall boy taking orders from an elderly couple sitting a few tables away.

“Should I hug him?”

“It might be best to wait,”

“Yeah, yeah, right,”

“So,” Levi sipped his (surprise) iced tea and seated himself more comfortably in his chair, “How did you manage to land in group again?”

Eren thought back to his first session and realized that Levi had come in late, therefore missing his brief explanation.

“I punched Jean in the face,”

He was expecting laughter, or at least a joke about what a stupid reason it was. Instead, Levi just nodded.

“Why?” He asked.

“Because he pissed me off,”

“How?”

Eren sighed and, like a child, pouted while taking another drink break.

(How could he _not_ , Eren defended himself in his head, it was _so good_ , and he had already told this story a thousand times.)

“He was talking shit about his mom,”

Levi wrapped his silver chain around his own thumb and pressed against it hard enough to turn the flesh underneath a dark shade of purple.

“Why did that bother you?”

“Because his mom is amazing, I’ve met her,” Eren said, voice growing soft, “Plus she’s _alive_ , so Jean’s lucky,”

“Your mom is—“

“She died when I was younger,”

Levi’s grip on the chain loosened.

“I’m sorry,”

For a few seconds, Eren looked extremely sad, until—thank god, Levi thought he’d broken him—he started smiling.

“It was a long time ago,” He said, and that was the end of it, “I do have a question for _you_ though,”

“What?”

Eren’s eyes shined as he began to laugh.

“Why did you order _pancakes_ at a diner famous for _waffles_?”

A serious look, the same look from the car, appeared on Levi’s face.

“Because I don’t want waffles, I want _pancakes_ ,” He stated, “Is that a problem?”

Eren grinned cheekily as he drank the last of his hot chocolate.

“Nope, not at all,”

Then he looked at the ceiling, ignoring the incredulous glare he was receiving from Levi, and waited to order another drink.


	3. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren invites Levi to lunch and they make pizza bagels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second chapter! It's still sort of an intro (?) but the next one should start up more of a major plot.

The a few sessions after the whole “breakfast” incident, Eren found himself getting _excited_ to go to group. His immediate reaction was to crush the feelings, to stay angry at Erwin, because if he didn’t he’d end up being like everyone else in that room: manipulated into thinking therapy would help.

But then, as Eren tried as hard as he could to look mad in his plastic yellow chair, Levi walked in. Late again, he gave a defiant nod towards Erwin, who just rolled his eyes and wrote something down on his clipboard before motioning towards an empty seat.

“Now, before we were so rudely interrupted…” The blond continued as Levi made his way to the red chair. It was four or five feet away from Eren, which changed into two or three after being pulled closer.

“Hey,” Levi whispered.

“Hey?”  Eren responded, confused as to why they were sitting so close together.

“I went through Starbucks today and got you this,” He held out his left hand, and Eren then realized he had been holding two cups today instead of just one, “It’s not as good as the diner’s, but it’s alright,”

Levi waited for him to take it, and when he eventually did, Eren could smell it was hot chocolate.

“Why did you get me this?” He asked, forcing a scowl.

“Because you like hot chocolate, right? Careful, it’s hot,”

“Excuse me,” Erwin snapped the metal clasp on the top of his clipboard down harshly, and the sound made everyone jump, “Eren, Levi, is your conversation more important than the one we’re all having? Would you like us to pause the meeting so you can continue?”

Sarcasm and annoyance were both obvious in his tone, and Levi smirked.

“Yes, actually that would be nice. Thanks for offering, Erwin,” He said, sounding smug.

“It was a two second conversation, can’t you let it go?” Eren mumbled loud enough for everyone to hear.

Surprisingly, when everyone thought he'd lose his cool, Erwin took a deep breath. The vein about to burst in his neck calmed down, and he placed the clipboard in his lap with shaking hands. Erwin did many things, but lose his cool was never one of them.

“I have been trying very hard to reach out to you,” He said, “And you have shown me nothing but disrespect.”

Levi leaned back in his chair and flicked his wrist, causing the ice in his drink to swirl around. It was quite obvious he did not want to pay attention.

“However, you’re all here because something is wrong, or bothering you, which makes me feel like I’ve been taking the wrong approach,” He paused and looked directly at Eren, “So, next session, I will be recruiting an assistant that might be more compatible with the diverse… _personalities_ … in the group.”

“Who is it?” A freckled boy called Marco asked quietly.

“You’ll all see next session, won’t you? Now, since this meeting is basically over, anyway, I’ll dismiss you all. I’ll see you on Thursday.”

Everyone stood up in a rush, excited to no end that they got twenty minutes cut off from the session. It was a frenzy, with people grabbing bags and coats and anything else they brought with them and then bolting from the room—which looked a lot smaller when it was nearly empty.

Eren was quick to get out, too, but then realized after he had reached the parking lot that Levi hadn’t come out with everyone else.

“Levi?” He panted after running back to the room.

“Hmm?” The shorter boy looked up from his chair. He was sitting—legs crossed, silver chain in hand—in the same red chair he had sat down in, and while Eren was painfully confused as to why he hadn’t left yet, his mind (thankfully) decided to take a safer approach.

“Do you,” He paused to take a breath, “Do you want to have lunch with me?”

“Why?”

Eren shrugged.

“Consider it a thank you for this?” He held up the still full cup of hot chocolate. Levi smirked.

.

“So this is your apartment?” Levi asked.

He was impressed to say the least, the apartment was clean (well, as clean as it could be with _Eren_ living there), with a living space and kitchen and one or two doors that probably led to bedrooms. Eren shrugged off his light jacket and threw it over the dark brown couch. His shoes were kicked beside the door.

“Yep,” He grinned, “It’s almost mine, anyway. My dad stops by now and again, but he’s out on business most of the time.”

“What does he do?”

“He’s a doctor,”

“Do you miss him?”

Eren nodded, brushing his bangs up over his forehead. He never normally talked about his family to _anyone_ , let alone someone who he still barely knew. But Levi was staring at him like the information mattered more to him than anything, and Eren trusted him. He didn't know _why,_ but he did _._

“It depends on the day,” Eren turned towards the kitchen, “What do you want to eat?”

Levi’s face scrunched up in concentration and Eren couldn’t believe how cute he was, even for a guy who wore black and rarely smiled.

“Do you have bagels?”

“Yep,”

“Sauce?”

“Mmhmm,”

“An oven?”

Eren rolled his eyes.

“Yes, I have an oven,” He said.

“Perfect. Let’s make pizza bagels.”

Eren _wanted_ to tell Levi that pizza bagels were snacks middle school students made in cooking class, but decided to hold his tongue; the shorter one was already preheating the oven, and Eren’s comment wouldn’t affect anything one way or another. So, after pulling out all of the ingredients, he followed Levi’s instructions on how to make the “perfect pizza bagel”.

“Step one: don’t put too much sauce on. That’s it. That’s the only step.” He explained, glopping spoonful’s of sauce onto each bagel slice and handing Eren a knife to spread it out with.

“Why not lots of sauce? I like sauce,” Eren asked, pretending not to notice (or blush) when Levi licked a long stripe around the red-covered spoon.

“Because if there’s too much of it, the bread will get soggy and gross.” He answered. Eren didn’t question him.

Moments later, as their lunches were heating up, Levi decided he wanted nothing more than to know who Erwin’s secret new person was.

“I know it’s someone I know,” He kept saying as he paced around the couch, “I just don’t know which person,”

“How do you know you know them?” Eren asked.

“Because I know everyone who works with Erwin,” He said confidently, “I’ve been around the system a fine amount of times.”

“You know everyone?” Eren repeated, impressed, “Why are you even in therapy? You seem pretty level headed to me,”

Levi sighed and sat down next to him on the couch. The silver chain was quickly pulled out from his pocket and he instantly began playing with it, twisting and turning it every way possible.

“I am there for reasons,” He said vaguely, “Pretty good reasons, too. That’s all anyone knows.”

“Oh, okay,”

Eren wanted to ask him more, to pry just a little bit, but somehow he knew that wasn’t the best plan, especially since this person could easily snap him in half. He’d rather stay on his good side—the pizza bagel and pancake side—than the bad side.

“Eren?” Levi snapped his fingers in front of Eren’s face to get his attention, “The timer’s beeping.”

“Yes! Food!” Eren leaped off of the couch and ran to the oven.

.

“Mine’s soggy...”

Levi groaned at Eren’s whines.

“What did I tell you, Eren? What was the _one_ rule?”

“Not too much sauce…” He mumbled sheepishly, pushing the plate away from him. Levi’s sigh turned into a light laugh as he slid one of his pieces over to Eren on a napkin.

“Here, you can have half of mine,”

Eren screamed inwardly, partially because Levi was the most amazing person he’d ever met, and also because that pizza bagel was the best thing he’d tasted since the hot chocolate.


	4. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi meets Mikasa and Armin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did a Levi POV chapter! Yay! I might not get around to posting tomorrow because I will be busy, but the next chapter will be up soon.

Levi came across as a simple guy, who lived a simple life, ate simple foods, and worked a simple job. This was not actually true. But did that stop him from tricking people into thinking he was some sort of perfect guy? Absolutely not. He did to basically everyone he had met—including the two people he had seen that morning.

Mikasa Ackerman, she had called herself, when the check-out lady working at Target asked. She was tall—taller than Levi—and wore all black except for a red scarf around her neck. Jet black, short hair ended a few inches above where the red started, and when he looked at her face he could tell that she was Asian.

“Excuse me,” He tapped her shoulder, “Your last name is Ackerman?”

She flinched at the touch and jerked away, gripping her shopping bag so tightly Levi thought it might burst.

“Why?” She countered. He lowered his hand and quickly thanked the check-out lady before answering.

“I was only wondering, since my name is Ackerman, too. Levi Ackerman. I was wondering if there was any relation between us.”

There was a moment where Mikasa mulled over the name, and then recognition flashed across her features. Which was why Levi was so confused when she turned on her heels and started marching away, saying:

“Maybe, I don’t know,”

“Wait a second,” He asked, following her. She was about to say something (he could tell by the way her lips pursed in a very annoyed fashion), but was interrupted by a blond boy, who seemed to appear out of nowhere.

“Mikasa!” He cheered, “I found you! You told me to meet you at Kohl’s, but you weren’t there, so I checked around and here you are, thank god,”

Mikasa smiled at him, and Levi watched as she handed him the Target bag. He opened it and seemed very happy with what was inside.

“Yeah, sorry about that, Armin,” She shrugged, “I couldn’t find anything he’d want at Kohl’s so I left.”

“Its fine, I figured that,” He stuck a hand into the bag to help his investigation process, “You did a great job, Eren will love all of this stuff!”

Levi raised an eyebrow.

“Eren Jaeger?” He interrupted. Armin jumped a bit and Levi could see him trying to determine whether or not he recognized him.

“Yeah, Eren Jaeger… Who are you?”

“I’m Levi,”

Mikasa sighed with relief as he left out his surname, but grimaced when Armin got the same look of realization that she had earlier.

“Are you the Levi who goes to group with Eren?” Armin asked. He seemed a lot nicer than Mikasa, with a wide smile and bright, friendly eyes. Besides the Target bag, he was holding a pair of sunglasses and a navy blue and white flannel.

“Yeah,” He nodded and the blond practically flew off the handle with excitement.

“I knew I recognized your name from somewhere,” He gushed, “Eren’s mentioned you a few times. You must be getting him birthday presents, right?”

“I, uh…” Levi trailed off, completely surprised both because Eren actually talked about him to his friends, and because he failed to ask when his birthday was.

“Of course he hasn’t, Eren doesn’t talk to people at group. He hates group and everyone in it.” Mikasa said.

“Don’t say that,” Armin gently nudged her arm, “He’s talked about Levi a lot, actually. He says Levi makes group not so b—“

“It doesn’t matter, okay? Can we go now?”

The brunette turned and briskly walked away, not bothering to wait for Armin’s response. Armin himself, who was mortified because of her behavior, looked back at Levi with a blush on his face.

“I-I’m sorry, she’s really nice, actually,” He stammered.

“I’m sure,” Levi murmured, sarcastic. Armin gave a nervous laugh and shuffled his feet around before seemingly remembering something.

“Hey,” He held out the navy and white flannel, “I know that Eren has group this afternoon, and since you’re going do you mind giving this to him? He let me borrow it, and I would drop it off, but it would be easier if—“

“No problem,” Levi did his best to smile, “I’ll give it to him first thing,”

Armin grinned before placing the garment in his hands and turning around to follow his friend.

“Thanks,” He said, “It was nice meeting you!”

.

“Hey dork, I brought presents,”

Eren flinched when he heard a familiar voice in his ear, and whipped around to see that it was, to his delight, Levi.

“You’re here early,” He commented. The elder shrugged and attempted to scratch his ear with his shoulder, since his hands were full.

“Well I ran into two people who said they knew you, and the nice one gave me this,” Levi held out the flannel. Eren looked at it and realized who he must’ve meant.

 “My flannel!” He exclaimed, grabbing it, “Thanks, Levi! I thought Armin lost it,”

He spent a while trying to tug it over the long sleeves of his grey shirt, and when he succeeded, he realized Levi had been quiet the entire time.

“What is it?” He asked. He had expected at least some resistance while answering, but the shorter one looked right up at him, perfectly straight faced.

“Is he your boyfriend?” Levi asked bluntly. Eren saw anxious anticipation flash in Levi’s grey-blue eyes, and his heart fluttered because _why did he care._

“Oh, no,” Eren laughed, “I don’t have a boyfriend. Armin’s been my best friend since we were little kids,”

“Oh,” Levi almost fainted with relief, “I was just wondering,”

“So what are my other presents?” Eren teased, wiggling his eyebrows and leaning in closer. Levi pushed him away by the chin and tsked to himself a few times.

“If you sass me you won’t get anything,”

“Aw, please?”

Levi rolled his eyes as one hand reached into the wrinkled Target bag, retrieving a pack of sour gummy worms. They were the cheap kind—the best kind—and there were a bunch of flavors, but that didn’t matter since (to Levi) they all tasted like sugar, anyway. Eren’s eyes almost popped out of his head once he saw them.

“Y-you got me—“

“Consider it a birthday present,” Levi said as he handed him the bag. Before Eren could ask, Levi continued: “Yes, stupid, your friends told me. How old are you turning, anyway?”

“Eighteen,” He stammered, “Thanks for the present, but my actual birthday isn’t until tomorrow.”

Levi nodded, subconsciously fiddling with his silver chain in his sweatshirt pocket.

“Well then, happy early birthday,”

“You know,” Eren thought out loud as he chewed on the candy, “Armin and Mikasa told me they were throwing a party next week. Can you come?”

He tried to hide his anticipation as he waited, but he wanted Levi to attend so badly that he was 100% positive he’d die if the answer was no. Levi wasn’t making it any easier, either; he kept biting his lip and leaning backwards, humming softly as he pondered the question.

“Mmm…” He teased, smiling through the lip bite, “I guess I can make _some_ time for you,”

Eren almost cried with excitement, but instead just shoved a handful of gummies into his mouth and tried to prevent himself from hugging Levi.

(He did this for multiple reasons: One because he wanted more candy, two because hugging him would be very awkward, and three, he’d end up getting punched.)

“Phank gou,” He tried to say through the sweets. Levi just smirked, and then watched Eren begin to walk along with the crowd of people waiting to enter the group classroom, which had just opened up.

“By the way, Eren,” He called. The boy turned around, still chewing.

“Can I have your number?”


	5. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Erwin's assistant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been so long... I'm sorry... I got really busy. Anyway, notes for this chapter:  
> I know that Hanji's gender is non-binary, but for the purposes of this story I have written the character as female. I don't mean anything by it, it's just easier for me to use pronouns. If this bothers anyone please let me know.

After Eren had given Levi his number, they both walked in to an oddly quiet room. The change in volume wouldn’t have been so strange if the room was _empty_ , but the same people were sitting in the same chairs, with the same stubborn looks on their faces. The thing was that no one talked. Or made any bodily noise. Or even screeched their chairs. Jean didn’t even turn his head to send Eren his daily death glare.

“Well, are these the two we were missing?”

The voice shook Eren, who hadn’t noticed anyone else in the room. Apparently Levi was surprised, too—even more so when he realized who exactly had spoken.

“Hanji?”

It was a woman who responded, thick glasses reflecting light from her desk lamp;

“Ah, Levi! You remember me?”

Levi took a step backwards, to lean against the doorframe.

“How the fuck could I forget?” He groaned. Two seconds in and he’d already acquired a killer headache.

Hanji—or so Levi called her—smiled. She was tall, with a plain, pretty face and unruly hair that had to be forced into a ponytail. Eren couldn’t tell from where he was standing, but had a gut instinct she had crazy eyes. Her voice alone gave that away.

“Y-you know Levi, Han—“

“What did I say about keeping quiet? We are waiting until everyone sits down and then we’ll start.” Hanji interrupted the daring Sasha, who was the first out of everyone to say something. She had been shut down quickly and without a fight; the way Hanji scolded her, deadly yet sickly sweet, was more than enough to keep her quiet.

“Yes, she does know me,” Levi sighed. Eren noticed that his reaction towards her had changed from surprise into boredom.

“Levi, Levi,” She scrambled to grab her notepad and flipped a couple of pages, “You will sit… Uhm… Where is i—Ah! You will sit right in the back, in the blue chair.”

She pointed to where a few scattered chairs were placed. Levi, after making a shitload of incoherent noises and murmurs about how ridiculous Erwin had to be in order to make _Hanji_ his assistant, grabbed Eren’s free hand and roughly dragged them both to the back of the room.

“Wait!” Hanji called out, “What’s your name, young man?”

“Eren,” He muttered, averting his gaze onto something more interesting, like Levi’s long fingers intertwined with his. Hanji clucked her tongue.

“Eren, I have you sitting in the f—“

“He’s sitting back here, Hanji,” Levi snapped, “You honestly made a seating chart?”

“Actually no… Erwin did. It says so here, in his instructions. He can’t be here today so he asked me to do whatever his notes say.” She held up the small book and began to read more of the rules, “No talking unless called upon by a friend or instructor, no food, if Levi shows up late confiscate any Starbucks beverages immediately—“  

“That seems a bit harsh,” Marco piped up from across the room, “Erwin is actually really nice one on one. Why does he hate us so much?”

“It’s not you, Marco,” Jean was quick to say, “Its Eren and Levi.”

“What was that, horse face?” Eren clenched his fists.

“Now, now,” Hanji made soothing motions with her hands as she spoke, “This is good! Let’s talk through this, shall we?”

“Talking won’t solve _him_ , obviously,” Eren referred back to Jean, who was on his feet in two seconds flat, arguing his side with no thought whatsoever.

“Don’t you have anything better to do than yell at people, Jaeger?”

“I could ask you the same thing, shithead!”

“Why don’t you just go home to your precious, expensive apartment and complain there?”

“I would if I could, but your face was just _asking_ for it.”

“Oh for _fucks_ _sake_ —“

“That’s enough!” Hanji smacked her notebook on the tabletop, loudly, to draw everyone’s attention. Instead of being upset, like everyone thought she’d be, she was smiling.

“This is wonderful improvement. I have a tactic that might work for this group, just bear with me…”

There was a momentary pause in the fighting while Hanji seemed to count everyone in the room and scribble down notes, and even when Jean sent Eren a look that screamed “this isn’t over”, he was more focused on what she was doing than to care. Eventually, she seemed to settle.

“Here we go…” Levi sighed, leaning back in his chair, “Another life-changing strategy by Ms. Shit-Glasses. Prepare to be spiritually soothed down to your core.”

“Your sass is not wanted nor appreciated, shorty,” She said, earning a round of muffled laughter throughout the room, “Now, I have noticed that a few of you work better with one person than another. So for the rest of the meeting, you will be interviewing somebody one on one. Maybe talking to a friend is easier than talking to many people.”

Eren gazed at Levi, who had no immediate reaction. Jean, who had still been standing in front of Eren, sat down.

“Who’s talking to who?” He asked. Hanji scanned over her notes.

“I made a quick list based off of my observations… Okay, so, Sasha will be interviewing Connie, Jean with Marco…”

The list grew and Eren waited anxiously for his name, wishing that Levi would show at least a bit of concern as to who he’d end up with.

“…Levi with Eren,”

Levi twitched when he heard his name, and Eren sighed with relief. As soon as the list was over, the shorter one grabbed both of their chairs and dragged them as far away as possible from Hanji and the rest of the group.

“Thank god,” He said as soon as they were a safe distance away, “I was afraid I’d end up with Historia for a second. Ymir would’ve given me so much crap.”

Eren smiled.

“I’m glad I ended up with you,” He said. Levi cocked an eyebrow.

“And why is that?”

“Because you give me free stuff,” He laughed when Levi playfully shoved him, “So what do you want to talk about?”

“You,” He said quickly, “Tell me about your birthday, or your friends, or anything other than this torture.”

“Talking to me is torture?” Eren asked, sarcastic and serious at the same time. Levi bit his lip.

“Nah, brat,” He winked, “You’re the only thing that makes all of this bearable.”

Eren practically melted.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos are always appreciated!


End file.
